Were giving customers the little bit of extra help they need to replace the competition, says Kelly Polanski, EMC product marketing VP. She says that help comes from deep discounts on product licenses for NetBackup and Backup Exec users.
How deep? For some customers, well give a like-for-like trade-in at no cost, Polanski says.
Does that mean free software? Not really. Customers will have to pay for maintenance and can buy services to facilitate the migration. But its no surprise that EMC is willing to give up licensing fees to take market share from its No. 1 software rival.
Indeed, EMC has already spent billions to challenge Veritas. EMC acquired software companies Legato and Documentum for a combined $3 billion in 2003 and merged them into the EMC Software Group to go after Veritas (see EMC Gobbles Legato, EMC Cops Documentum, and New EMC Group Jabs Veritas). Dantz cost EMC less than $50 million in October, giving it a weapon to attack Veritas on the low end (see EMC Dances With Dantz).
EMCs Polanski wouldnt say Smart Switch is timed specifically to take advantage the merger, but its unlikely the timing is coincidence.
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